Friday, August 29, 2008

Look what I have hanging in the window of my studio. This sweet little birdie is from Emilie Friday's etsy shop. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and thought he/she would look pretty nifty hanging in front of my desk while I create. I love her use of felted wool, which is something I have on my "Things to Try Someday" list.- Picture courtesy of Emilie Friday -

Here's a better photo of it taken by Emilie. It is so full of whimsey.....It just makes me smile! The card pictured above I made for my cousin, whose darling little Yorkshire Terrier Lily passed away last week. For such a tiny dog, she had a heart as big as the sky and she really helped my cousin through some rough times. I know all you pet lovers out there know what I mean.

The image on the card is actually from an American Greetings birthday card that I planned to give my cousin on her birthday in April. Didn't think that would be such a good idea not, so I repurposed the image onto a new card with paper lace, glitter and leftover scraps from the wedding invitations I am making. Inside the greeting says,

"May you find comfort in your loving memories."

Be watching here for pics of the cards I received in Heather's Greeting Card Swap. They really are beautiful and I can't wait to share them with you.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Quite a while ago I showed you these sneak peeks of a "special project" I was working on with a group of very talented ladies. It was all hush-hush back then (and still is... sort of) but if you click here you can see a little peek of one of the books that we all worked in. We are all over-the-moon with excitement as you can imagine!

My sweet friend Cerri had to be rushed to the hospital for some emergency surgery the other day. She is back home now and on the mend but if you have a minute, please stop by her blog and send her some good wishes to help cheer her up!

Nothing much new around here. I am going through artistic withdrawal lately as I haven't stepped foot inside my art room for quite some time. All my focus has been on wedding details and although much of those have been creative projects, I really miss playing with my papers, trims and ephemera. I am going to have to carve out some time for myself to create something soon. Of course my head is just swimming with ideas and there's been no time to run with any of them. Isn't that always the way? I'd better start writing and sketching those inspirations down in my art journal before they slip through my feeble mind into oblivion!

Friday, August 22, 2008

I've been a bad blogger lately ~ sorry about that. Lately I've been buried in wedding details. Boring for you all I know, but it's my life right now. I've been working on making the invitations and my old HP printer was giving me tons of flack. Yesterday there were lots of expletives flying through the house as I tried to print the address on the envelopes which are slightly too wide for my printer tray. {Thanks Paper Sourcefor creating an envelope incompatible to computer printers.} After switching the orientation and fiddling with the margins, etc., the printer decided that it was not going to feed the envelopes through the rollers and so I had to take a break and call a friend just to "vent." It was either that or pour myself a stiff drink and since it was only 9:00 a.m. and I had lots to accomplish, I didn't think that would be a very good idea. I'm sure my friend was thrilled to listen to me tell my tale of woe, but I felt much better afterwards and was ready to try to tackle the beast again.

This time I switched to my daughter's Epson printer, which feeds the paper in a different way. But first I had to rummage around to find the printer driver disc to install on my computer which I feared would blow up since I already have so much loaded onto it. Another entry on my endless "to-do" list is transferring all my photos onto an external hard drive before I lose all of them. Well, to make a long story short, after more fiddling and playing with the positioning of the text I finally was successful at getting the envelopes printed out. Whew! Check that item off the list.

My daughter and I went to the seamstress to have two bridesmaid dresses altered. To add to the craziness of these pre-wedding weeks, she is standing up to two friend's weddings. So everything she has to do is tripled between fittings, showers, bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, etc., etc. Anyway, the two dresses came in and were about 5 sizes too big for my daughter....who takes these measurements anyway? I couldn't believe after the outrageous cost of these dresses that they can't make them closer to the girl's sizes. But then I had a friend tell me that these dress shops purposely order the dresses larger, telling the girls that they might gain a few pounds before the wedding, just so they can sock them with an additional expense of alterations. What a racket!! We fooled them though and took her dresses to a seamstress who does alterations as a side business. It still is very expensive, but I'd rather support a local craftswoman than a corporation who is trying to rip us off. Besides, if they can't measure correctly in the first place what makes me think that they could alter the dress correctly? It was amazing to watch this seamstress do her thing on the two dresses. She was quick with her pinning and even with all those pins sticking out, the dresses looked 1000 times better being fitted properly.

Ok, I'd say that is enough ranting and raving for me this time. You don't need {or want} to listen to all my trials and tribulations of being the mother of the bride. Afterall there will be plenty more to rant about when I go shopping for my dress {ugh!} and as it gets closer to the BIG DAY and I start evolving into "Mother-of-the-bride-zilla!"

Monday, August 18, 2008

Our exciting weekend of my daughter's bridal shower is over. All the planning and preparations and then ~ woosh ~ it's over before you know it! What a lovely day it was though. The weather was perfect....sunny, but not too hot which allowed everyone to sit outside on the deck for the entire party. Of course after it was all over I realized that I didn't take nearly enough photos. That made me sad because this is a once in a lifetime experience. It's hard to take pictures and still make the rounds to talk to everyone. I hear it will be even worse at the wedding. I guess I will have to work on my mingling technique before the big day. Of course there will be a photographer there, so I don't have to worry about that part of it. There will be plenty of other things to attend to I'm sure. Pictured above is the darling cake and my sister-in-law also had a huge cheesecake, an endless variety of homemade cookies, and lots of fresh fruit, nuts, chocolates, etc...and that was just the dessert course! She is a gem and I refer to her as "the entertainer" of the family because she does it with such ease and grace. What a wonderful array of gifts my daughter received. I couldn't believe how generous everyone was. And we all agreed that we wish we could have our own showers again after seeing all the lovely things she got. One of the highlights of the day was when I over-heard a friend of mine telling my daughter that she has such good taste and I choked up when my daughter replied that she gets her good taste from me! (Sigh) Right now our living room is a sea of gift boxes ~ actually it looks like a Crate and Barrelstockroom! I don't have a clue as to where we are going to put all of it for the next couple of months until the wedding. I wonder if my daughter would notice if I slipped a few of the things into my own kitchen!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

I made this little card for my daughter. We are going to another shower given in her honor on Saturday. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. The image is a vintage wedding cake topper and the greeting is from a vintage bridal shower card. I used a page from a 1926 Danish songbook - this particular song is about LOVE. And the book text on the crepe paper rosette is from an old French novel. Our side of the family has Danish roots and the groom's family has French ancestry, so I was so thrilled to be able to use these two elements together.Of course I couldn't resist using lots of glitter - both clear and silver glass glitter. Dresen dye-cut love birds and vintage lace complete the card.This sweet little procelain couple is actually a bell by Lefton, circa 1953. I found this on one of my antiquing trips and their heart-shaped mouths and the bride's aqua bouquet told me they were definitely coming home with me!

Thursday, August 07, 2008

I can't believe it's almost been a week since my last post. I wonder where the time goes? Thank you for all the sweet comments about my retro-inspired greeting cards. It's fun to play with new color combinations to keep the creative juices going.

I've been updating my etsy shop, made some price changesand added the pink posies pictured above. It's been quiet around here and that has enabled me to get some things accomplished here at the house that have been needing attention for quite a while. It feels good to check things off my list.

I heard about a couple of exciting things the other day, but I am going to wait to share them with you until I know they're a "for sure thing." I certainly don't want to jinx anything by shooting my mouth off prematurely. In other exciting news, I signed up to be a vendor at Sadie Lou's new website called LolliShops.Don't you just love the name? I'm very excited about this new outlet for all things frou-frou. Sadie always throws herself 100% into anything she does so you know it will be a top-notch site. Be sure to check back here and I'll keep you posted on when things are up and running.

I am anxiously waiting for two new books which are due out early next month. Mixed-Media artist Kelly Rae Robertshas a new book here and Kaari Meng of French Generalhas a new sewing project book here. Both books look fantastic and full of fabulous inspiration.

Well, I'm off on a Post Office run and to take care of a few other unexciting errands. I may just swing by Barnes & Noble while I'm out and treat myself to a leisurely cup of hazelnut latte. I really should be working on wedding invitations, but there is always manana.

Friday, August 01, 2008

I finally got my cards mailed to Heather for the Summer Greeting Card Swap she was hosting. She's away right now, so they will be waiting for her when she returns. I had so much fun putting these cards together. I was inspired by some note cards I saw in a shop that were aqua with red polka dots. I really like this color combination, so decided to use it as the theme for my greeting cards. I looked through my stack of images and decided that these vintage Dick, Jane and Sally images along with some others of children fit in with the color scheme perfectly and gave the cards a retro look. After that things just fell into place, using rick rack, polka dot ribbon, ledger paper, and my trusty scalloped edged scissors. I lined the envelopes (practicing for all those wedding invitations I have to make) using some of Elsie Flannigan'sscrapbook paper. I sent along this mini journal for Heather as a thank you.All day Monday I spent in Criminal Court - as a juror, not a criminal. This particular courthouse is in a crummy neighborhood - why I never get sent to the courthouse that is 5 minutes from my house, I'll never know. I guess news of the energy crisis and high gas prices hasn't reached the court system yet. I put in a request for a limo to pick me up, but for reasons unbeknownst to me my request was denied! So I had to arrange my own private transport - my DH. {What a peach of a guy he is for driving me!}

As we pulled up in front of the courthouse, I made him come to a screeching halt so that I could jump out and follow this woman who was wearing khaki pants. She looked like a nice lady and from the determined stride in her walk, I deduced that she must have some experience in these types of things - jury duty that is, not crime! I later learned that her name was Virginia (and my earlier assumption was correct - she was a nice lady). We were followed in line by another woman named Marilyn, who was quite a stitch! How did I get so lucky?

After my new best friends and I made it through security without incident, we headed up to the Jury Room where they kept all of us potential jurors until the Jury Room Concierge (the title of importance we bestowed upon him) called our panel number. Marilyn's number was called first and we said our sad farewells as she left for her important courtroom assignment. We later met up for lunch and she informed me that she was #3 in the jury box on a drug charge case which would last all week. Bad news for her, since she had already blown her $17.20/day paycheck on one-way public transportation and lunch. Seems as though Marilyn's expense account was going to be in the red after only one day of duty.

I was the next one to have my number called and like a herd of cattle (or 2nd graders on a field trip) we were lined up two-by-two, counted and recounted only to discover that we were missing someone. Out of all the groups that had been called before us, we were the first group to be missing a person. Sheesh, what an embarrassment! Finally after several attempts at trying to locate said missing person, she just appears in line and says, "Oh, are you looking for me?" I swear some of these people should have been sent to Judge Judy's courtroom instead of criminal court. My group was assigned to a courtroom where a man was accused of breaking into a railroad freight car with the intention of theft. How boring is that? I figured since I had to go all the way to the criminal courthouse, I would at least get a case that was more exciting than attempted freight car theft. Oh well, you aren't allowed to pick and choose your cases, so I had to settle for this one.

After having to listen to the judge interview about 20 people asking them the same questions over and over again, I was beginning to understand the sign that was posted in the courtroom which read, "No Sleeping." I was surprised by how many of the people had been victims of crimes themselves. I was also surprised by some of the wacky excuses people gave when the judge asked them, "Do you have anything coming up in the next day or two that would prevent you from serving on a jury?" The gammet ranged from relatives who were dying to having to babysit their grandchild, the neighbor's child, their sister's child, to doctor and dentist appointments for themselves or for their mother, father, sister, uncle, etc. to not understanding the English language, having new soffit and fascia installed first thing in the morning to playing in a golf tournament...Judge Nick told that man, unless you're Tiger Woods they're not going to miss you if you're not there. The best excuse(s) came from a lady who I'll refer to as "The Queen." This was her extended list of excuses:

1. I have to take my husband to the clinic; no one else can take him; appointment can't be rescheduled.

2. I have diabetes.

3. I'm not sure I can be fair.

4. I have a lower back problem. And when asked if there was anything that could be done to make her more comfortable if she is chosen to serve on the jury, she gave the perfect getting out of jury duty response, "Well, maybe you could turn off the air conditioning!"

I am sad (NOT) to say that my answers to the interview questions weren't good enough for this case, which has left irrevocable wounds on my ego. So I called for my chariot to come pick me me up and my civic duty and "one day, one trial" jury duty stint comes to a close for another year.